4 Pacifica High Students Injured in Crash Near School : Accident: The collision occurs in front of shocked classmates. One victim is in critical condition.

GARDEN GROVE — Four Pacifica High School students were injured Wednesday morning when the Volkswagen bug they were driving to school ran a red light and broadsided another car as fellow students looked on, authorities said.

Three of the students were hospitalized, one of them in critical condition, in the accident that left fellow students stunned and shaken.

School officials brought in three crisis counselors to speak to the teen-agers who witnessed the 7:45 a.m. accident on Lampson Avenue at Lamplighter Street next to the 1,500-student school.

“It’s just awful,” said school secretary Darlene Ingels. “We are trying to comfort the kids.”

“We’re just all waiting for news,” added Principal Peggy Mahfood.

The students were driving in the eastbound lane of Lampson Avenue when the driver sped through a red light, striking a Ford Thunderbird that was turning left across the road onto Lamplighter, Garden Grove police said.

The impact crushed the front of the 1971 VW, collapsing the dashboard and hurling the driver, Shawn Groendyke, 17, into the windshield, police said.

Parents delivering their own children to the school clustered around the trapped students, and one man took off his jacket and draped it over an injured boy before paramedics arrived. Shocked students were ushered away from the scene by school officials.

Groendyke, a senior and a member of the soccer team, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange with head and leg injuries, school officials said. His condition was not disclosed. Groendyke’s brother, Troy, 14, who was in the rear seat, suffered head injuries and was taken to Western Medical Center-Anaheim, they said.

Jimmy Barndollar, 16, suffered a broken jaw and leg, school officials said, and UCI Medical Center reported his condition as guarded.

Brian Del Prino, 14, a freshman and member of the football team, suffered a skull fracture, according to school officials. He was listed in critical but stable condition at Western Medical Center-Anaheim.

If the students had been wearing seat belts, they might have escaped serious injury, said Police Officer Carl Whitney.

The driver of the other car, Phyllis Todd, 55, and a child traveling with her were uninjured.

Students sitting outside the high school said even this reminder of road hazards might not convince some students to drive more cautiously.

“Kids are still going to drive like maniacs,” said Dawn Brentanha, 16.